Indian born CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella said that mixed reality, quantum computing and artificial intelligence are the three technologies which will shape the world in the coming years. He mentioned that the computing history has been about enhancing the interface between man and machine, but the ultimate computing experience will be “mixed reality” which blends the virtual and the real world.

Nadella was in Delhi as a part of a two day visit to India in order to promote his book Hit Refresh. He visited the company’s campus in Hyderabad during his stay. Referring to AI as one of the three technologies which will shape the years and decades to come, he mentioned that the currency of our times will be the ability to collect data and to reason over it to create intelligence. He cited examples of how the company’s ‘HoloLens’ was being used in different sectors like education. HoloLens is a holographic computer which is designed by a Redmond-based company and it allows the users to interact with digital content to get an immersive experience.

Nadella also talked about teleportation and mentioned that it is no longer restricted to Star Trek, he mentioned, “If you take Microsoft 43 years into our existence and I look at it every five years, we have had some new existential threat.” Further, he spoke about how people wrote that some company could kill Microsoft but it has not happened, hence the US based company must be doing something right to stay relevant.

Another technology with a long term horizon is quantum computing, which will allow people to deal with the challenges of computation. Earlier in the day, Microsoft showcased ‘Ruuh’, which is a chatbot that uses AI to engage with the users. It is deployed on Facebook and Skype. It was launched about nine months back and has more than 17 million conversations already.

An executive from Microsoft said, whether you are nervous about an exam or excited about a job, Ruuh is like a friend who is always there to chat with you. It has been inspired by a chatbot by the company in China. Microsoft decided to bring it to India and realized that bringing a technology into a new country is very different and challenging. Hence, they built the bot for India and named it Ruuh.